The fate of a railway worker

In May, the President will deal with the Ministry of Railways

The reform of the Ministry of Railways was once again considered by the government and once again generally approved. By May 1, it was promised to submit a detailed document to both the government and the president. Apparently, Vladimir Putin will make the final decision on railway reform.

Yesterday, unlike previous approaches to the topic of reform of the Ministry of Railways, there were no special discussions. “And all because the reform program was approved not as presented by the head of the Ministry of Railways, Nikolai Aksenenko, but as interpreted by the Minister of Economic Development, German Gref, who acted as the main speaker,” a source in the White House apparatus told the Vremya Novostei newspaper. In other words, Mr. Gref’s vision of reforms defeated the lobbying of individual ministers. According to the Ministry of Economic Development, the departments fighting for a piece of the pie, in particular the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Aviation Administration, did not receive the main thing - the coveted control over tariff policy. Mr. Gref, as the president ordered, delegated the regulation of tariffs to a single federal body, whose powers, of course, will extend not only to the railways. He proudly stated that such a government agency “will be able to determine the level of tariffs that would not lead to infringement of the interests of either natural monopolists or society.”

Mr. Aksenenko, according to participants in the government meeting, did not argue. He hastened to take the lead, apparently hoping to continue his career in the railway department as the head of the newly created Russian Railways OJSC. Which is very reasonable given the persistent rumors about his resignation from the post of minister. The fact that Mr. Aksenenko's prospects are not brilliant was involuntarily confirmed by Mr. Gref. He took it, right after the cabinet meeting, and threw a stone at the chief railway worker: “Currently, the Ministry of Railways is a disintegrated structure that does not lend itself to economic logic.” And he added that first of all, the government will have to “streamline the financial flows of the industry.” That is, until now, the head of the Ministry of Railways, Aksenenko, worked disorderly with financial flows, which is economically illogical.

Vera KUZNETSOVA